STYLE: Gospel RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 163097-24844 LABEL: Independent FORMAT: CD Album ITEMS: 1
Reviewed by Lins Honeyman
Ohio-based hip-hop artist Bishop Lawrence Hancock's third album sees the pastor of Toledo's Final Harvest Church continue in the same vein as previous releases. Once again, Hancock keeps the sound fairly basic with the occasional piano accompanying the stripped-back electronica in the attempt to offer up an industrial feel to proceedings. Whilst Arthur Bishop's sax brings some variety to the opener "You Prosper Me", adding different elements to the musical backdrop would help keep the listener's interest and avoid each track sounding like the previous one. Also, Hancock's tendency to take a single line - often just three or four words - and repeat it over and over again without much of a melody wears thin after a while and more development is needed lyrically to allow the worthwhile message of Christ's love to get through before the listener turns off. Hancock's vocals are half sung/half rapped and do the job well enough - although there are some tonality issues in the likes of "Work It Out" which should really have been addressed prior to the release. But overall, more work generally is needed to bring the good bishop's music up to standard.
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